


The Proposal

by fmo



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Asexuality, F/F, F/M, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 17:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3390842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fmo/pseuds/fmo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 1948, Peggy outlines a problem, and her solution to it. It involves a very large house, and possibly a very large bed.</p><p>"He said it felt like he was being too greedy, asking for too much. I said there was no harm in asking.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Proposal

“James. I want to speak with you,” Carter said. She was already closing his office door behind her back, pressing it shut so that the lock clicked neatly. With the door shut like that, the room was soundproof: that was SHIELD protocol.

“All right,” Bucky said, putting aside the maps he’d been examining. He’d always found it was good policy to listen to what Carter wanted to say, but her tone was a little unsettling. “Is this about Steve?”

She sat in the chair facing his desk, hands folded calmly. “What about Steve?” she asked, only the faintest hint of a crease between her eyebrows.

“I dunno, I just—if this was business we’d be in a meeting, right?” Bucky realized that his left hand was tapping against the table absently, its gears whirring audibly; he made himself be still. He appreciated having the prosthetic, usually, but the noise it made got under his skin sometimes.

Peggy looked down for a moment. “It is about Steve,” she said. The engagement ring he’d bought her was large on her left hand. Her nails were red and unchipped, but short.

“What did he do?” Bucky said. Given Peggy’s typical poise under fire, it could be anything from a minor romantic blunder to hopping onto a rocket that Howard was shooting up to the moon.

Peggy shook her head, making her soft brown curls stir on her shoulders. “He didn’t do anything wrong,” she said softly. “I assume he talks to you about me.”

It seemed like a conversation that shouldn’t be held over a desk, so Bucky got up and sat on the edge of his desk instead. “He does a little,” he said carefully.

“He talks about you to me as well,” she said. That, Bucky hadn’t been expecting. It was a strange thing to say.

“What kind of things exactly?” Bucky said. “Stories about when we were kids?” He trusted that Steve wasn’t telling Carter anything desperately private—nothing about the bad times Bucky had had after they’d found him in Switzerland, or after Steve had rescued him the first time in Italy.

Carter got up and walked to Bucky’s bookcase, where his coffee-pot sat. He’d given up liquor after he’d gotten out of the hospital, after the big row with Steve that he still preferred not to think about, but he always had a pot of coffee at hand for when he needed something to do for a minute.

Peggy turned around again after contemplating the coffee for a moment. “All sorts of things about you,” she said. “I almost feel as though we know each other—well, better than we do.”

Bucky crossed his arms. “I thought we knew each other a bit. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes, we are,” Peggy said. “That’s why I trust you enough to ask you about this.” She took a deep breath and went on. “You know my friend Angie.”

“Yeah.” Good-looking girl, loyal as hell to Peggy, a bit of a spitfire, lots of personality, terrible actress but fun to have around. He’d sometimes ended up chatting with her when Peggy and Steve felt the need to bring their friends along for a double date, and he didn’t mind that. He hoped he wasn’t about to be set up with her, though, because he did like her but—well, even though she was pretty, and he liked talking to her, he didn't want to do anything more than talk to her.

“Well, Angie and I are much like you and Steve,” Peggy said.

“Yeah, you’re best friends,” Bucky said, trying to figure out what Peggy was getting at. “Wait—is this about Angie having the hots for Steve?” That would be dire.

“No, thank goodness,” Peggy said. She actually looked a little amused. “No, James, I mean—the way you feel about Steve and the way he feels about you—that’s the way I feel about Angie.” She held his glance steadily.

Bucky felt his fingers and toes go numb, felt his heart start to hammer. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m trying to find a practical solution,” Peggy said. “To a problem we all share.” She ran her thumb briefly over the diamond on her left hand. “I do love Steve, you know that. And Steve loves me.”

At least this was more solid ground. “Yeah, I know,” Bucky said.

“But then there’s you and Steve,” Peggy said, more quietly. “And there’s me and Angie. And then.” She took a deep breath. “Something else about Steve and me.” Now it was even quieter. “You know how he—he finds some things difficult.”

Bucky tilted his head in affirmation. He had a general idea about this. Steve was all heart when it came to Peggy, but very skittish when it came to her—actual advances. Bucky had sat up with Steve many times trying to talk him out of his nerves when it came to what you could actually do when you were actually touching a woman—just starting with kissing—but it didn’t seem to help, and it was obviously weighing on Steve’s shoulders more each day. Peggy was very understanding, apparently, and never asked Steve to do more than Steve felt all right doing, but the problem seemed to be that Steve didn’t feel all right doing much of anything, and he knew that Peggy wanted more. Then he started feeling like he wasn't good enough again, just like he had when he was little, no matter how often Bucky told him that nobody else thought that.

“Angie’s much the same, actually,” Peggy said. “I think you and I are more similar in that respect.” She pinned him down with a look again, and Bucky remembered her doing the same thing to Steve when she was in that red dress, years ago in London.

“I’m not gonna do anything behind Steve’s back,” Bucky said at once. Sure, Peggy was beautiful, but Steve was Steve. His heart would be broken. “If that’s what you were getting at,” he clarified, suddenly unsure if it was.

“I don’t want to do anything behind anyone’s back,” Peggy said firmly. “I’m proposing an agreement. Between all parties. A logical way to work things out for everyone’s benefit. By the way, I talked to Steve about it last night, and he wasn’t opposed. He was worried about what you’d say.”

Bucky cleared his throat. “What’s this agreement?”

“Steve and I have been looking at a rather large house,” Peggy said, which seemed like a non sequitur. “Steve loves it, but it’s a little too big for us. In fact, it’s a better size for two families.” She paced the edge of the office again and turned. “Just listen before you say anything: I marry Steve. You marry Angie. We share the house—two families, two pairs of best friends. Perfectly ordinary, and quite touching. In private—you aren’t parted from Steve, and Steve's happy because he's not parted from you. I’m not parted from Angie either. Steve and I still love one another. And you and I help one another to have a rather good time.”

Bucky’s eyebrows rose up to his hairline. “You actually asked Steve about this idea?” He thought he sounded a little hoarse, but then again, to his credit, he didn’t actually fall over.

“And Angie,” Peggy said, impassioned, cheeks slightly flushed. “Angie’s all for it. She’ll be respectably married, and continue to keep her friendship with me. And Steve—he said it was a dream, James. He said it felt like he was being too greedy, asking for too much. I said there was no harm in asking.”

“Fucking hell,” Bucky said, and then covered his mouth. “You're serious? And, uh—you don’t mind?”

“Deadly serious. And it was my idea,” Peggy said, raising her eyebrow just a little. And wasn’t that a kicker. He’d been good with women a long time ago, but after Switzerland, and the arm—it had been a lot to explain, and things had been different. It was harder to get to know someone new over dinner when he was so set apart now from ordinary life, when there were so many things about himself that he didn’t want to tell someone.

But he’d always thought Peggy was gorgeous—no, that was just a fact. He was used to not looking now, because she was Steve's girl, but she had a lot to look at. Even the way she carried herself was attractive; she didn't hesitate. She walked with power and confidence, like a queen. And she had the brains and guts and heart and fire to back it up. And he'd personally seen her take on six enemy agents at the same time and win, which was a whole other kind of attraction.

To think that Peggy wanted Bucky that way, him as he was now. That was something to contemplate on later.

“You can take some time to think about it, of course,” Peggy said. “And it’s all right, of course, if you decline. No harm done, and we won’t mention it again.”

“No,” Bucky said, finally finding his voice. “I mean—no, I’m not declining. Just one thing I want to ask.”

“Yes?” Peggy said.

“You gotta start calling me Bucky,” he said, leaning forward a little.

And Peggy smiled; he hadn’t gotten a girl to smile like that in years, and he'd missed it. “Is that your only condition, Bucky?” she said.

“That, and maybe a really big bed,” he said. “Might have to get it custom-made.”

“Well, that’s an idea,” she said, in a low voice. “Steve did say that he thought you and I would be quite a sight to see.”

Bucky was able to prevent himself from cursing that time, even though he felt like his heart was in his throat. “How soon can you buy this house?” he said instead. Peggy laughed.

 

***

 

There was great confusion at SHIELD in 1987 when DNA testing revealed that although all of the Rogers descendants possessed a form of the Super-Serum, not all of them carried Steve Rogers’s DNA.

There was even more consternation when it was discovered that half of the Rogers family line carried James Barnes’ DNA, especially considering that James Barnes and his wife had chosen to adopt.

When the news reached the aged but still fiery Howard Stark, he wheeled into the lab, waved his hand and said, “Kids, listen to me here. There have never been four people on this planet more loyal to one another, and if you call up those nice people and start pestering them about it, you are in for a world of trouble. My advice: just forget about it.”

“But the serum—Erskine’s serum—shouldn’t be—”

“Make that an order,” Stark said. “Here, give me those.” He folded the test results up and put them in his pocket. “Now, go on and do something useful.”

**Author's Note:**

> Steve and Angie are obviously both asexual in this fic, although nobody involved has the words for or understanding of what that means due to the attitudes of the period. However, Steve does like to watch Peggy and Bucky together, although he doesn't like to participate. Angie isn't interested in sex at all and doesn't want to be involved in anything in the bedroom, but she does like to cuddle with Peggy and flirt with Bucky, given that she and Bucky are just good friends and that the flirting will never lead to anything more, but is just fun.
> 
> Please leave comments! I'm very bored at the moment and need entertainment : )
> 
> Come say hi to me at fmowrites.tumblr.com, and if you found this fic through a rec, please tell me! I love to hear about being recced.


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